New Rolls-Royce Ghost Alpine Trial Centenary Collection

We all know that ‘Special Edition’ cars help car maker shift metal, and even at the top end it works – especially in China. All of which explains why Rolls Royce are delivering a new limited edition Ghost for China at the Shanghai Motor Show this weekend – the Rolls Royce Ghost Alpine Trial Centenary Collection – which takes inspiration for its titivation from the Silver Ghosts that took part in the Austrian Alpine Trials in 1913. The Alpine Trial event in 1913 – just before the world changed forever – saw four Rolls Royce Silver ghosts drive for 1820 miles through almost impossible mountain terrain and establish Rolls Royce as the makers of the ‘Best car in the world’.

Jaguar XJ 3.0 TDV6 Long Term Test (2010): The Intro

Our long-term XJ joins last week's review car - the XF S We moaned about the tease that was the introduction to the new Jaguar XJ, but we dutifully went off to the press launch at the Saatchi Gallery in July 2009 and declared the design a triumph. We looked forward to the promised press cars by Christmas 2009, but they never happened as Jaguar worked to make the new XJ as bullet-proof as a car can be. But by the end of May 2010 the first press cars started to arrive and the first customer cars escaped in to the wild.

Jaguar: Four-wheel drive a priority. Hybrid Jaguars not.

Our long term Jaguar XJ would have been better in the snow with 4WD - but it's coming We’ve been talking about a four-wheel drive platform for Jaguars for a long time now. As far back as 2009, Jaguar privately confessed that the lack of an XF Estate was down to the lack of a 4WD platform to make the XF Estate a proper competitor in the luxury load-lugging market. And although we thought Jaguar could still make a success of the XF Estate without a 4WD option, we understood their perspective; Jaguar didn’t want to be the poor relation in the luxury estate market.